Ukraine updates: Russia fires biggest missile salvo in weeks

Ukraine's human rights commissioner has said that arrest warrants issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin and children's ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia have had an effect.

"In my opinion, after the two arrest warrants were issued by the International Criminal Court, it has become easier to return children," Dmytro Lubinets told a news conference on Friday.

"I do not know what arguments the Russian Federation accepts, but children have begun to be given away. Non-systematically, in small groups, however, they have begun to be given away," he said.

Lubinets' comments come two days after eight Ukrainian kids were returned from Russia and Russian-occupied territory under a deal brokered by Qatar, bringing the total number of repatriated children to 387. However, Kyiv says more than 19,500 children have been officially deported since Russia's invasion, and that that figure could be even higher.

"If one deported child is returned home every day, Ukraine will need more than 55 years to do it," Lubinets said separately on Telegram.

In the wake of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 Moscow says it transported thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia in a humanitarian move to protect minors abandoned in a conflict zone. According to the United Nations, many of these abductions constituted war crimes.

The European Union will find alternative avenues to provide more financial support to Ukraine, even if Hungary uses its veto at a key summit next week, a senior EU official has told the Reuters news agency.

Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has often expressed sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been critical of EU support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia. Ahead of next week's leaders' summit, Orban has threatened to block EU plans to provide €50 billion ($53.8 billion) in budget support for Kyiv through 2027 as well as for membership talks.

"We know how existential [financial support for Ukraine] is," said the official, who is involved in preparing the summit, speaking on condition of anonymity. "European leaders are responsible people — at least 26. They will stick to their commitments."

Should Orban veto the financial package, the official said the EU could allocate a smaller amount to cover a shorter period or, alternatively, the other 26 EU countries could extend their national contributions bilaterally to Kyiv.

The EU has provided Ukraine with €18 billion in support in 2023, despite an initial veto from Hungary, whose behavior is reportedly frustrating other member states.

"Across the board, the Hungarian hooligans are a problem when it comes to our policy vis-a-vis Russia's aggression against Ukraine," another senior diplomat said bluntly, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

The West's failure to deliver adequate and substantial military support to Ukraine is the "principal reason" for the current battlefield stalemate, according to retired US Army General Ben Hodges.

"The Ukrainians have already proven [what they can do] with just three Storm Shadow missiles provided by the UK that forced the Russian Black Sea Fleet to begin to withdraw from Sevastopol," he told DW, referring to a lethal Ukrainian strike on occupied Crimea in September.

"Imagine what would happen if they had 50 or 75 American ATACMs or German Taurus missiles? If they had the long-range capabilities to hit Russian headquarters and logistics, then we'd have a much different situation on the ground," he said. "The reason things have stalled is because the West, led by the United States and Germany, have not committed to helping Ukraine win. There's going to be blood on our hands if this continues to be dragged out."

Hodges insisted that, while the war is first and foremost a battle for Ukraine's survival, it's not only about Ukraine.

"This is about all of us: European security, American prosperity, it all depends on Ukraine being successful against Russia," he said. "Inflation anddisruption of food and energy supplies are all linked to Russia's attack on Ukraine, so if we're serious about those issues and if we're serious about protecting the rules-based order that we claim to value, then we have to help Ukraine win."

The Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7 achieved "more in one day than [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has managed in two years," according to a former US Army general: "They made the West forget about Ukraine."

Speaking to DW, Ben Hodges put the ongoing conflicts in both Ukraine and the Middle East into a global context linked by Iranian support for both Russia and Hamas and the resulting strain on US capacity to maintain financial and military support for the two countries.

"Iran and Russia are strong allies, the only real allies each other have, so it's no surprise to me that the [Hamas] attack happened when it did, and that Russia is benefitting from it so much," Hodges said. "The fact that support for Ukraine seems to be weakening … is a gift to the Kremlin. It reinforces to them that all they have to do is keep hanging in there until the West runs out of will."

Looking even further afield, Hodges said even the notion of a potential re-election of Donald Trump "gives oxygen to the Kremlin," while "the Chinese are also watching to see if we have the political will and the industrial and military capability to stop Russia, stop Iran and deter China."

Ukrainian energy consumption hovered near record highs on Friday, increasing strains on the fragile power sector as nearly 500 settlements faced blackouts due to Russian shelling, air strikes and bad weather.

"The power system remains in a difficult situation. At the moment, there is no free capacity at power plants," said officials from grid operator Ukrenergo.

The energy system is entering a second winter at war in a much shakier condition after months of Russian missile and drone attacks last winter pounded critical infrastructure. Once a key exporter of electricity, Ukraine this week turned to neighbors Romania, Slovakia and Poland for emergency supplies.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said falling temperatures, urgent repair work and a limited use of solar power due to cloudy weather had all exacerbated the problem.

"We call on everyone to reduce their electricity consumption, especially between 9am and 7pm," he wrote on Facebook.

"This morning Ukrenergo again recorded a high level of consumption, which is almost equal to yesterday's record," the grid operator said in a statement, adding that consumption had risen 4% on Thursday compared with the day before and was at its highest levels so far this winter.

Kyiv hoped increased air defense capacity, thanks to the delivery of Western weapons systems, would help protect the vulnerable power grid, but Ukrenergo said a thermal power plant near the front line in the east had been damaged by systematic and prolonged shelling.

Russian and Belarusian athletes who qualify in their sport for the Paris 2024 Olympics can take part as neutrals without flags, emblems or anthems at the event next year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Friday.

Athletes who are members of the military are excluded, IOC added.

The athletes had initially been banned from competing internationally following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, but have since been gradually allowed back as neutral athletes in most sports.

According to the IOC, there were currently only eight athletes from Russia and three from Belarus who had qualified as neutral athletes. In comparison, more than 60 Ukrainian athletes have qualified for next year's Paris Olympics.

Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry raised its 2023 grain harvest forecast to 59.7 mln tons, saying the country had a "record grain yield."

The total grain and oilseed harvest is expected to reach 81.3 million tonnes, the ministry added in a statement.

According to preliminary estimates, Ukrainian farmers will harvest 22.2 million tons of wheat, 5.8 million tons of barley and 30.1 million tons of corn in 2023.

As for oilseeds, the harvest of sunflower remains at 13 million tons and soybeans at 4.6 million tons. The rapeseed harvest has been completed with more than 4 million tons harvested.

Ukraine is one of the largest exporters of grain and oilseeds, but the Russian blockade of the Black Sea routes made it difficult for Ukraine to export its agricultural products.

The Ukrainian parliament approved three bills necessary to start European Union accession talks, including one on national minorities' rights, a critical demand from Hungary, which opposes Ukraine's EU bid, officials said.

The other two adopted bills concern staff increases in the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and additional power for the National Agency on Corruption Prevention on assets checks.

The 27 national EU leaders are due to decide next week on whether to accept the European Commission's recommendation to invite Kyiv to begin membership talks.

Any such decision, however, requires unanimous support. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly said he would not support the Commission's proposal in its present form.

Budapest has clashed with Kyiv over what it says are curbs on the rights of ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine, in particular regarding education.

Russian warplanes fired 19 long-range missiles at targets in Ukraine, killing one civilian, wounding four and damaging an industrial facility, Ukrainian officials said.

The attack was the first major salvo of missiles Russia has fired at targets, including the Ukrainian capital, in weeks. Russia has mainly been using drones in its recent overnight attacks.

"Unfortunately, one person is dead. Preliminarily, four people are wounded. They are all in hospital. Two people are in severe condition," Dnipropetrovsk's regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Air defenses shot down 14 incoming missiles over the region outside Kyiv and the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said the Ukrainian capital had been targeted in the attack but that all the missiles were downed by air defenses as they approached.

Russia used seven Tu-95 bombers to launch missiles at different regions across the country, the air force said in a statement.

Officials also reported an earlier overnight missile attack that struck the northeastern Kharkiv region.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that military aid to Ukraine is also a source of growth and jobs at home.

"If you look at the investments that we've made in Ukraine's defense to deal with this aggression, 90% of the security assistance we've provided has actually been spent here in the United States with our manufacturers," he said.

The US top diplomat was speaking in Washington following a meeting with his British counterpart, David Cameron, on Thursday.

Blinken emphasized that this "produced more American jobs, more growth in our own economy." This is in addition to the importance of Kyiv's support to global politics and US national security, Blinken added.

The US is Ukraine's most important military supporter in the campaign to defend itself against Russian forces. However, the release of more aid is being blocked by a domestic political dispute between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. 

During his visit, Cameron made a strong plea for further US aid for Ukraine.

He said he did not want to interfere in US domestic policy, but was putting forward arguments that he considered important "as a friend of America, as a friend of Ukraine." 

"In the 1930s we didn't act fast enough to deal with the evil dictator who was invading European countries and redrawing borders by force," Cameron warned. "And we know how that ended."

dh/nm (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)